This invention relates to an opening and resealing device for cans having an aluminium top and comprises an improvement on the opening device described in my application for patent Ser. No. 427,500, Filed: Sept. 29, 1982 Entitled: Opening and Stopper Device now U.S. Pat. No. 4,433,792. The invention specifically relates to opening devices known as pop-tops of the antilitter type commonly used for beverage cans. The opening and resealing device is constructed with a sealing lip incorporated in the underside of the operating tab to form a stopper member to reseal the container. The improvement comprises a storage recess into which the sealing lip is nestled prior to use to prevent the lip from becoming contaminated with dirt and the like.
The operating tab is conventionally used for separating a prescored portion of the can top from the remaining top and depressing the flap from the can. The tap is conventionally connected to a rivet pin at the center of the can top and operates as a lever with a manual lifting portion on one side of the pin and a reacting detent portion on the other side of the pin, which engages the edge of the scored flap for depressing the flap into the can. Once opened, no provision on the tab mechanism has been provided for resealing the can. Certain plastic lid covers engageable with the circumferential rim of the can top are available for covering the entire top of the can and resealing the contents. Generally for the type of can usually employing a pop-top opening device, such covers are not provided with the can, and the user is most often left without a resealing means and must discard unconsumed contents with the can.
The opening and sealing device of this invention improves the mechanism conventionally used for opening beverage-type pop-top cans and integrally incorporates a sealing means into an altered opening tab and a protecting means into an altered container top for protecting the sealing means from contamination prior to use.
The resealing means comprises a projecting sealing lip, preferably of a semideformable composition that is integrally incorporated on the underside of the tab. The projecting sealing lip is nestled into a protective recess in the top of the can to prevent the lip from being inadvertently contaminated prior to use. Lifting the tab removes the sealing lip from the recess and concurrently engages a tab detent with a scored portion of the can top to form an aperture.